Transcripts For BBCNEWS HARDtalk 20171224

At the best of hardtalk, 2017. So many personalities, so much passion, and more than a little anger. There is a lot of pain in america, and donald trump addressed that pain. He said im going to be a different type of republican. Ihearyour pain. The only trouble was donald trump lied. I work inside the white house, and i will tell you, there is no crisis, we are creating the results expected of us and which got the president elected. He can build as many walls as he wants. But what he will never ever achieve, is mexico paying for the wall. We do not want to have islam claiming political power in our country. They are preaching against our values, our constitution, our people, our culture the worst thing that could happen in terms of the north korea is to move into a kind of escalation and then all of a sudden we are sleep walking into war. It is the entitlement of too many men, and it is epidemic. And when theyre famous and theyre powerful like harvey, then it gets talked about. Theres only one place to start our look back at 2017, the united states. Donald trumps election victory reflected a divided america, and his first year in office deepened those divisions. Bernie sanders, welcome to hardtalk. Great to be with you. Do you in any way regret the lumps you kicked out of Hillary Clinton . Because if you had not, she might be in the white house today. No, i do not accept that at all. What i accept is the fact that our campaign brought millions and millions of people into the political process. Donald trump did not need me to understand that Hillary Clinton gave speeches before wall street, did not need me to understand Hillary Clintons record. There is a lot of pain in america, and donald trump addressed that pain. He said i will be a different type of republican. I hearyour pain. I will take on the establishment, the political establishment, the economic establishment. The only problem is donald trump lied. Senator lindsey graham, john mccain, your good friend, says it is time for republicans on capitol hill to stand up to donald trump. We are not his subordinates, john mccain says. So, are you now prepared to stand up to donald trump . Absolutely. We came out strongly against the first travel ban because i thought it was basically a ban on a persons religion. Sebastian gorka in washington, what is the atmosphere in the white house today . Fabulous. I literally just left the oval office where we swore in general kelly as the president s new chief of staff. It was like a family gathering. Great, great mood. Lots of press interest. So, we are very excited about recent developments. Are you . Quite interesting. This is a heck of a family you are living with at the moment. Anthony scaramucci, with his words to the new yorker last week, he has surely thrown a bomb into the building behind you, the white house. Hmph, not at all. I know thats what our colleagues on the hill on the left and in the chattering classes of the leftist media would want people to believe. But its not at all like that. We are excited, the agenda, make America Great again, is working. We strengthened the team. We have people who can communicate to the base that elected him as president. Sebastian gorka left the white house just a month later. One of the most extraordinary features of the first months of the Trump Presidency has been the deepening sense of a war between the white house and the so called mainstream media. Andtop of the president s enemy list is the new york times, the grand old lady of american newspapers, which donald trump portrays as a purveyor of lies. This is a president , umm, who does not like the press. No president ever like the press he gets. He likes it less. This is a man who made his name in the Real Estate Industry by manipulating the tabloids. He becomes president , and i think he was expecting the same thing. Fox news gave it to him. But we wont. You, i think it is fair to say, for a long time, as a paper, didnt appear to take trump that seriously. Would you at least accept that . I guess the way i would flip it, it wasnt that we didnt take him seriously, we didnt take the donald trump phenomenon seriously. Out of touch would be the phrase. Out of touch, i would accept that. There was anger in the country. Anger at elites. We were seen as elites. I do not think we had ourfinger on the pulse of the anger. We wrote about the anger in the country, but we did not understand the scope of it and how much people want to change. None of the usual diplomatic rules applied to the donald Trump Presidency, and some harsh words came from south of the border. Excuse me, it starts with the wall. He can build as many walls as he wants. He can enclose that leading nation behind more walls because of fear and because of his crazy ideas, but what he will never ever achieve is mexico paying for the wall. Thats a different thing. That has to do with sovereignty, that has to do with dignity, that has to do with pride. We are not paying for that stupid wall that he wants to build. Build it if you want with us taxpayers money. Latin america had its own big headache this year. Venezuela plunged into an economic crisis which saw shops emptied of food and hospitals run out of medicine. The socialist government of president Nicolas Maduro faced a wave of protest. For the last few years, you have been a diplomat at the United Nations representing venezuela and the venezuela government, and a month ago you decided tojump ship. Why . It is impossible to defend the undefendable. You can clearly see the violation of human rights and the crimes against humanity that have been committed in the past four months. It is impossible to defend his quote unquote socialist utopia. It is actually a dystopia. A journey to venezuela undercover. Journalists were barred as the opposition took to the streets. He has never been a radical. Antoinetta lopez. The mother of the countrys most famous political prisoner took me to hear the voice of resistance. Look at that. Well, ajeep has come out of the prison. Maybe theyll take your camera. Maybe they want to talk to us. This was the moment our filming in venezuela came to an abrupt end. As the military police approached us from the prison, we attempted to leave. We managed to conceal the camera in our car but our cover was blown. European politics in 2017 featured concern about immigration, the rise of anti establishment populist politics, and efforts by mainstream politicians to reinvigorate the centre ground. And, of course, there was brexit too. And the magazine i worked for. One of the most memorable interviews of my year came from Nicholas Frank whose father was hitlers lawyer and the nazis top official in poland. You have to know the history, the history of your people. It hurts to admit we killed the lives of innocent people in a system which was really a tough system. And to be against the system then was to have a very brave character to do it. But this hurt. You can endure, like i do it, and i still love germany, i love being World Champion in football, for instance. Really, im a nationalist, yes . As you can see, especially with merkel and the refugees, everything changed because the silent majority, as if it werejews again. The swamp is coming. You feel that . You really feel so insecure about your germany today . Yes. Dont trust us. We do not want to have islam claiming political power in our country. We are very much in favour of religious freedom, i said that already. And a mosque is where muslim people are practising their beliefs. So, thats ok. What we know from our secret services is we basically, in every mosque we have problems, because they are preaching very often in a language which we do not understand, which is arabic. They are preaching against our values, our constitution, our people, our culture. Let me explain, we have radical and political islam in europe, jihadists. Secondly, we have a trap by putin, an autocrat in the kremlin who tries to divide europe, already, years from now and now we have an american president who is seeing the european unity as a pillarforforeign policy. He is saying openly he hopes for the disintegration of the european union. I think we are, for the moment, in an existential moment for the eu. There is a clear idea for brexit. Theresa may said that in her speech and her florence speech. There are bits i am not enthusiastic about, but it is a clear manifesto for what she is looking for. She has been generous in the offers she has made to the european union. The government she leads is stronger than many, not all, continental governments. You can take a decision one day and change your mind another day. It happens. It is ok to open doors and say maybe, if you are interested, one day, we would be happy to have you back. Throughout 2017, europe cast uneasy glances to the east, and Vladimir Putin continued to flex russias muscle in the International Arena while maintaining an iron grip at home. Vladimir putin just tries to distract russian people from real problems like inequality and poverty. We have 23 million of russian citizens living below the line of poverty, and he is distracting them from this problem with his imperial delusions about making russia great again and all this stuff. You know, unfortunately, we have a very weak position in our country. I wonder why that is. Could it be because they are not allowed access to state television, for example . It is not about state television. You have modern media. And television viwership is diminishing day by day. In russia today, if you switch on the tv and you want to find opposition voices, it is almost impossible. The american president is winning elections using twitter in order to be a successful opposition, you have to be sustainable, you have to have a programe of development of the country. You also have to be allowed a semblance of freedom. You have to be a person whos is not at risk of being assassinated as Boris Nemtsov wasjust 100 metres from the kremlin. You have to be a guy like Alexi Navalny whose brother is locked up on trumped up charges, and he himself is facing more trumped up charges. You need a space, a freedom, to make a movement. In russia today, you know as well as i do thats impossible. Why dont you think they are not fair charges . Because the European Court of human rights has said they are political and has declared them illegitimate. We dont agree with that. You dont agree with the European Court of human rights . I would rather trust our own court. Welcome to the hardtalk studios. Hello, stephen. Nice to meet you. Great to see you. Now were going to put you in that seat over there. 0ne russian intent on challenging putin and the election next march came into the hardtalk studio, boasting youth, not experience. Are you suggesting to me that mr navalny is supporting your campaign . I hope he will be wise enough if i will be registered to support me because, unfortunately, and this situation is very unfair, he wont be registered by unlawful lawsuits that are made against him, so if we are fighting for the same goal, and i think we are fighting for the same goal with alexei navalny, i offered him this option, to be the person whojust opens the door. I am the one who will be registered and i hope together with him we can fight for the best future of russia. In africa, 2017 will be remembered as the year Robert Mugabes rule finally came to an end in zimbabwe, tempting perhaps to see it as a symbol of a wider determination to push for more political accountability. Former president 0lusegun 0basanjo, welcome to hardtalk. Being mindful of what the National Assembly said in november of last year. What did they say . When you lectured them about corruption. What did they say . Do you want me to read it to you . Read what they say. Lest we forget, they said, the person who introduced corruption to this National Assembly is chief 0lusegun 0basanjo. He burst the National Assembly with corrupt practices from day one of his administration. Stephen, what they say is trite or they are talking rubbish. Listen to me. When i took over, the first thing that the National Assembly sent to me and they sent who was my National Security adviser is that whenever im sending a bill to them i shall send it with money and i said no. If i send a bill to them and they dont pass it, i will still run the affairs of nigeria. The National Assembly says, have you forgotten the sacks of money that were displayed on the floor of the house of representatives. Where did it come from . Being used for bribes. Where did it come from . You tell me you were in charge. Who brought it on the table . He says you and im quoting him directly. The grandfather of corruption in nigeria. I never gave anybody a dime. Never. Kgalema motlanthe, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. You made a decision to call for zuma to go. Yes. Notjust as party chief, but as president of the country. Yes, because my belief was that if you are in a leadership position you have the responsibility of guiding others. And whenever, you know, they get off the rails you have the ability to pull them back and that same conscience should help you as well. You dont think zuma has a conscience . Well, today, it has failed him. Its failed . Id say the entire leadership is crooked, with a few exceptions. A few exceptions. Joice mujuru, how could you, just a few months ago, describe Robert Mugabe as a father figure when you seemed to believe that people close to him are responsible for the murder of your husband . He appeared to be a father figure to me. That i should not run away from, because during this trouble these were people who were giving leadership to everybody who was in this trouble. And mind you, according to our custom, these are the respects we give to our seniors. It calls into question yourjudgement. About mugabe . About Everything Everything weve discussed. Its hard to understand how your political career makes any sense at all if you have morals, ethics and principles. Its very hard to understand anything you have done. The issue is you have never been to zimbabwe. The issue is you have never seen what personally have done for the country of zimbabwe. The issue is you have never come to zimbabwe to interview for yourself those people to say, how do you takejoice as a person . Well, actually, i have been to zimbabwe, i have reported from zimbabwe. You have not. So i have a little bit of an idea of how the politics in zimbabwe works. You have been there but you have not asked about me. I have actually. No. Yes, i have. The map of the middle east changed in 2017. The self styled caliphate established by the jihadists of Islamic State was erased in iraq and in much of syria too. So was this the end of the jihadists surge . I dont think we are going to see the end of isis at all. That will be with us for a long time, not only in iraq, but its spreading already. Already its reached thailand and the philippines, eastwards, and definitely to europe westwards. But in iraq, youre suggesting theyll change tactics . They wont hold territories so much as conduct an underground insurgency . Holding territories is finished for them. But they will do insurgencies. They will perform insurgencies and embark on insurgencies and resort back to terrorist activities of explosions and killings and assassinations. Thats why i say we need to end the war. Thank you 0k, bye. I was on the first commercial flight to land in benghazi, libya. Is fighters had terrorised the city for a couple of years, before being vanquished by a new Libyan Military force, led by Marshal Khalifa haftar, a one time gadafi loyalist with his own ambitions to rule the world. Troubling evidence emerged of haftars forces committing abuses, including summary executions. You will have read the latest un report suggesting that as haftar moved his forces back into benghazi, there were egregious abuses of human rights. Thats something that worries the international community. And that worries us too. These reports came out and he voiced his concern and he said that he would address them by investigating these people who had been committing these acts, these outlaws acts. Have you seen those videos and pictures, minister, of people being shot in the back of the head, bound, hand and feet, executed . Unfortunately, i have seen them. These acts should stop and im sure that the army staff will look into that seriously because of the wrongdoing that we have witnessed. Aside from the conflicts and geopolitics, 2017 will be remembered for the power of womens voices, speaking out about misogyny, sexual abuse and gender inequality. Some of my most memorable interviews from this year reflected deeply personal experience. Its the entitlement of too many men and it is epidemic and when theyre famous and powerful like harvey, then it gets talked about, and so its really important that those women who have been brave enough to come out and say so. Indeed, a sort of logjam has broken. But the point is there was silence when its clear that people knew of these behaviours but did not talk in public about them for year upon year. Why . Who are the women he preyed on and preys on . Young women, and most of them were in their 20s when it happened. Vulnerable. Afraid that if they said anything or did anything it would ruin their career. Why you felt that you couldnt speak out a year ago when you heard a lot of this stuff . I think its cause if i had i would have had to out someone who wasnt prepared to speak out. She subsequently has. If it had happened to me, i would now. It has happened to me, but long, long ago, and its very hard to come forward when youve been a victim of sexual abuse, because you get dragged over the coals, you have to prove. You have to justify. You know, we have to start believing these women and standing up and standing for them and protecting them. Ian mckellen, i wonder if you feel, looking back now, whether you have been a better, fuller actor younger, if you had been more public about your identity . I think probably. I mean, its certainly true of me and practically every person i know who has declared their sexuality that life becomes better in every possible way once you are honest. That clearly affects your work and my work, which is dealing with honesty and truth about human nature. It was likely to be more convincing. And thats what friends and colleagues say, that overnight my acting took on a depth which it hadnt had before, because im no longer disguising, im now revealing. Personal, political, powerful. We celebrated 20 years of hardtalk this year. Heres looking forward to more memorable encounters in 2018. Until then, have a very happy new year. Hello again. Although it has been a mild run up to christmas and that will continue today on christmas eve, we will notice a change by the end of christmas day. It is set to get much colder. The snow risk will increase and some of us may yet have a White Christmas and it could be windy in the next 48 hours. We had some brightness through the day on saturday. This was durham late in the day. We might not see as much brightness. There is an active weather front marching into the north and west of the uk now. We still have tightly packed isobars, so windy weather. They are coming from a mild south westerly direction and it is behind this weather front that the cold air is lying. It stays north for most and we start on a mild and murky note. There could be some morning fog but not as much as yesterday morning. It will still be dank, drizzly and grey for most of us as as we move in to this morning. 9s and 10s already as we get to day break. We may see some brightness around inland areas but not as much as yesterday. Not as much brightness for Northern Ireland and scotland because this weather front stays put. It sinks further south as we go through the day but the intensity remains with us for scotland. Argyll northwards in particular. It gets heavier through Northern Ireland through the afternoon. There is a fairly brisk wind and that is why i hope for the likes of the north east england and north wales, we may see some brightness. We might see it temporarily in northern scotland. As we go through this evening, another weather front joins forces with the one we already have so we are concerned we may see some flooding because it looks like a thoroughly wet 2a hours. As i say, argyll northwards could see 80 100mm of rain over the hills. The winds strengthen ahead of these two weather fronts as we get into of christmas day. It looks quite squally, the wind, across england and wales. It starts to move across the western side of england, wales, Northern England as well, and it is behind that that we get the snow risk. Very mild and windy ahead of it to the north of it, for the afternoon and evening, snow could be seen through lower levels of northern scotland and possibly Northern England. And then over night across the hills of wales and the south and west. That is because the cold air is coming back. Notjust across the north. It looks as though it will filter southwards across many areas by the time we get to boxing day. It will feel markedly colder. That is the weather system i am talking about. It is clearing out of the way. Then this weather system which could also bring a risk of snow. Please, stay tuned. This is bbc news, im gavin grey. Our top stories flooding and mudslides kill nearly 200 people, as a storm sweeps across the southern philippines. Meanwhile, the filipino president Rodrigo Duterte is due to visit the worst affected areas as efforts continue to locate storm victims. The bid for russias presidency begins in earnest as some of the candidates seeking Vladimir Putins job are announced. Catalonias sacked leader urges madrid to let him return to the region and take charge. A mission with a message we meet a group of nuns on a mammoth journey to encourage female empowerment in nepal